Talks on the future of Olympic Dam mining have been held in Adelaide between South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill and BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers.

It has been their first face-to-face meeting since expansion plans for the mine were deferred last month.

The Premier invited Mr Kloppers to Adelaide for the discussions.

BHP Billiton says it remains committed to expanding the copper, gold and uranium mine, but will look to technology for a cheaper extraction method.

Mr Weatherill went into the talks keen to ask BHP Billiton about the heap leach technology it will consider for mining.

"I understand it's technology that has been tested in laboratory conditions but it needs substantial additional trials to see if it can be brought to scale so I don't think it's similar to existing technologies that are being used," he said.

Mr Weatherill has previously said SA will be wary in negotiations given previous setbacks.

Mr Kloppers left the meeting saying he was unable to give any guarantee the expansion would proceed.

"I can clearly tell you that we've got a good copper mine, a large copper mine here but obviously this project that we're working on that we didn't approve, I can't give you a timeframe on when this project will be approved," he said.